Women's Worth Ch. 02

"Want to tell me about it?"

"For one, people are going to look at you funny all the time when you wear your holy symbols or whatnot. I've lived off stealth for so long, you know, I don't think I could enjoy that sort of attention, being with you."

"I could always wear it inside my robes. No, that's not it, Kat. I've known you so long. You just don't like me coming out to embrace my sexual identity."

"I am uncomfortable. My best friend is going to join the ranks of universally despised harlots, that's why! Look at Luisa. She got sampled, but that's just another way of saying she got raped and she didn't even look bothered. I just can't identify with that."

Kat downed the last of her tea, setting her cup down lightly.

"We can't ever be sure just what Luisa's really feeling, but of course you're right. We should keep on having a good time, just not until we become like, animals, you know. Really, I hear you on this. You know me, I like to fool around at times, but I'm not the sort of heartless bitch who just cares about myself. I care about this city I love, and I care about you too." Val pressed her hand over her heart.

"Yup, I know. "

"Thanks for coming up front with this. I didn't know you didn't like it. You're a real friend, Kaitlyn, and I really treasure having you around."

"That's nice of you. Oh, I like you too." Kat reached out to hold Val's hand for a squeeze and a smile.

"So have you got any new missions yet?" Val asked.

"No, I'm free for now. You?"

"I'm thinking of researching the spell book I got from the drow wizard."

"What for? You're obviously his superior."

"Oh, you can never know. But I can always do it later, if you've something in mind."

"Maybe I do. " Kat flashed a dimpled grin.

* * *

"I hope the veal was to your liking." Laramis asked, as he wiped his lips with a satin kerchief.

"It's good enough, thank you." Luisa couldn't help feeling a little awkward speaking to someone across the long table in Laramis' classy dining room, but at least her fumbling with the cutlery wouldn't be so obvious.

"Tell me, Luisa, what do you get up to when you aren't... in the shrine?"

"Hmm, any number of things. I could be out strolling through the city. I haven't been here for very long."

"Yes, you told me before. You didn't tell me why you left Calimport for here though."

"I'm seeking some of Sharess' holy treasures, but they're thought to be long lost."

"I see. I'd love to help you, but these days I'm so busy with work. Ever since my father Ferric passed on, I've had precious little time to myself. I've had to manage the business all by myself. This mansion didn't fall from the sky. I appreciate you stopping by, and it's so fortunate I'm more or less, free for the rest of the day. It's been a long while since I've enjoyed myself like that." He smiled, genuinely pleased. Walking over to her side of the table, he pulled the chair back for her.

"Thanks. That's very sweet." Luisa got up.

"Would you like a stroll in the gardens? They're very well-kept... or so I've heard."

"I'd rather get back to the library for now; there were some books I had my eye on." Laramis nodded and they made their way up the spiral stairs.

"Who was Fredor Tharm? The adventurer fellow, whose journal I was reading."

"An uncle. Those journals were already there when I was in my teens, which could be already middle age for human folk. I used to read them late into the night, dreaming of following in his footsteps." He chuckled coldly to himself, shaking his head. "Well, look what's turned out of that. I'm a foppish merchant man like dad."

"Well you're a lot richer than anyone I know. There's a lot of people who'd kill and more to live like you." Luisa said as she pushed the doors to the library open.

"To be honest, I envy you, Luisa. You live so free of cares. It must be easy to get anyone's attention, too."

"You don't say." Luisa smiled brightly.

How many men has she lived off? How many more will come? Ah, but she's gorgeous, and for now I should just enjoy her company, Laramis thought.

"I was thinking of reading up on magic artifacts, and then going out to look for them. You know, a treasure hunt." Luisa thumbed through the shelf of books.

"Hmm. Maybe we could read one of the other journals instead. Goodness. By Corellon, I didn't know we had that many of them in here."

Picking out a volume at random, and then a few more, Laramis led Luisa to a couch beside a window. Lying back on the cushioned couch with Luisa's softness in his lap, the sprawling city spreading out before his sight, the warm glow of midday sun suffusing through the tinted glass, Laramis flipped open "Underdark Journal 1". Following Fredor's crawl through a dank dungeon as Luisa lay on his chest sideways, her soft breasts against his chest, Laramis could feel the steady, firm pulse of his heart against Luisa, and for the first time in a while, he felt truly alive.

* * *

"You know, it isn't safe around here. I've heard the drow try to dig their way up from the Realms below into the tunnels here. Or that beholders come fly around now and then." Val whispered as they stepped along the dark tunnel, their boots splashing the rank sewer water softly.

"It's just a little look see. We're not just any other bandits, we'll do fine. I haven't been here in a while." Kat led the way, her shortswords in hand.

Long before the time of present-day Raven's Bluff, an old dwarven city called Sarbreen had been dug into tunnels and caves well underground. The city had been sacked long since, and all that remained were ruins and the ancient treasure of the Stout Folk, the dwarves. Their once-thriving civilization left a legacy of tunnels behind, some of which cut through the sewers of today, and hid caches of dwarven wealth. Tales of treasure were common pub talk, and tales had spread of innkeepers finding enchanted armor behind walls in their cellars or the basements of noble mansions haunted by short, stocky spirits.

So-called treasure maps to the riches of Sarbreen used to be all the rage among adventurers in the city until the city watch put an end to it, although dwarves, with a whiff of pride, have boasted that at most a tenth of all of Sarbreen's wealth had been uncovered to date. Today the tunnels below the city, if conspiracy theories are to be believed are rumored to harbor evil organizations like the drow or Red Wizards of Thay. They probably still hide hidden treasures, along with the denizens of the deep that have over the long years taken up residence in the abandoned dwarven hold of old.

Under cover of invisibility, other warding spells, and with the benefit of magical night vision Val and Kat had made their way into the sewers through a hatch in the House of Desires, traipsing through the dank, dripping sewers, following tunnels leading lower down, for the lower they went, the more they would find. They'd wandered at will, but not without marking the way back on parchment, at one point dodging a band of gnolls, with little to show for it besides sewage stained boots. Then, Kat's sharp eyes spotted archaic dwarven runes, almost faded, etched on a mossy wall. Such etchings commonly appeared singularly in the tunnels, most were likely street signs, but these formed a complete arch that looked to rim a doorway.

"I'll check for traps." Kat bent her knees a little to stay still, then leaned in slowly to scrutinize the walls around, followed by the floor, looking for the telltale signs of slightly displaced tiles that bespoke hidden compartments for arrows or spikes to fly out of and incapacitate would be treasure hunters, but found none.

"I can't read dwarvish. I don't think even a dwarf could read this ancient script. The runes themselves look to be pressure plates; we'll have to press them in sequence. I'm not sure we should even bother to try. There're about two-dozen of them, the sequence could be one of a thousand possibilities. Maybe we could copy them down and find a sage." Val suggested as Kat ran her finger along the indentations on the wall.

"No, I think we can open this right here and now. Look, some of the runes are dustier than the others. Those cleaner ones would be those that one needed to press. Look closely and you'll see a handprint. It's very faint, but the layer of dust over the handprint is just a little thinner than around."

"We can't tell if those prints were made by some other explorers. Even if you're right we can't tell the sequence."

"We could just try, since there're no traps around. Check for magical traps."

Val nodded, casting a divining dweomer that for a moment, bathed the arch of runes in a faint white glow, and then faded. Kat knew from experience that if the runes were trapped, they would've glowed a blood red.

"Well, let's try one of them. Which ones have handprints?"

"There're two, one of both sides. Hey, maybe you should press them together."

"As you like." Val reached forward to press the runes down, heard a soft click from somewhere in the wall, and then the section of wall rimmed by the runes sank quickly into the floor, revealing a doorway into a darkened corridor.

"Wait. Let me scout ahead with the wizard eye."

"Good idea. I'll keep watch."

Val cast her spell, and Kat saw a hovering eye the size of her fist appear in Val's open palm, then fly through the doorway. The magic of the spell kept the wizard eye invisible, although powerful individuals or diviners would detect it. Through the eye, Val would get a close-up look into the hideout without endangering herself by actually entering. Val's own eyes were closed, and she stood still, leaning against the wall, maintaining the necessary concentration to see and hear through the eye.

In Val's mind, the dark corridor, with mossy stony walls, was sweating drain water. The tunnel tapered into a hole that Val could crawl through, about 7 feet up the wall of a tavern's taproom, with resounded with the raucous cries of merrymaking; only the staff and clientele appeared to be of an exotic strain. The barmaid was a bare-breasted brunette with earlobes lined with gaudy rings. Her breasts were modestly sized, but they seemingly screamed for attention with tattoos tracing the curves of her orbs, smaller circular ones rimming each nipple, which were joined by a dangling silver chain.

Tales of beholders stalking the city's underground had circulated for years. One called them "a big eye with a bunch of little eyes that eats adventurers for breakfast". Today Val finally saw them for herself; a group hovering around a table. Each monster was a levitating, spheroid body with slimy skin, a horrendous fanged maw and a bulbous large central eye, it bore tentacles ending in smaller eyes – eyestalks – writhing on the top. The sight of them chilled Val to the bone.

All in all, the tavern looked to be a motley collection of the scum of the land. Goblinoids like bugbears and orcs rubbed elbows, playing poker as a pair of ogres flung darts at a helpless bound goblin. A gang of dwarves in spiked bloodstained armor cheered on their arm-wrestling, muscle-bound comrades. Lizardmen, by all appearances scaly bipedal man-sized lizards slouched in their seats in a corner, sipping from a glass mug of blood-red fluid. Val could only imagine how they'd all smell.

Passing through the only other doorway from the taproom, through two blue-skinned ogres, led to a rowdy arena. Goblin bookies grabbed fistfuls of betting gold behind a counter as spectators crowded against the railings around the battleground 20 feet under. Somewhere, a bell chimed, and the gladiators emerged; a troll of green gnarled skin armed only with clawed hands opposing a hooded drow in purple-black plate mail waving a gleaming silver scythe, its bladed edge glowing a poisonous green.

The troll, dumb beast that it was, lunged with its claws outstretched, only to have them almost carelessly batted away with the drow's scythe. Undeterred, the troll stumbled onward, slashing and flailing away at the drow it towered head and shoulders above, only to have the sneaky little fellow dart away or slap the offending hands away. The drow smirked, beckoning the beast with a crooked finger.

The troll had made its last move. With a tremendous leap the drow bounded right over the troll, sparkling dust trailing his feet, twisting around and slashing his scythe in a slick fluid stroke. The troll's head thudded onto the ground in a spray of green gore and venom moments after he landed, and he hoisted his scythe in the air, triumphantly, drinking in the audience's adulation.

Whizzing about, the eye exposed more of the den of iniquity. Adjoining chambers featured casinos and strip bars, and in a gloomy corner an eye-patched ogre rode a plump human woman pressed onto a table, her thick lips parting crudely, soundless in the collective clamor. Looming above the women writhing around poles, perched on a balcony was a winged succubus.

Up close she was an attractive dark-haired girl, with swarthy smooth skin, and slender eyebrows over dreamy dusky large eyes, with the horns of a ram that curled around back under her dainty ears. Her wavy jet-black hair flowed over her bared breasts and shoulders, snuggling between her spread gray wings, like those of a bat, membranous, translucent and fluttering slightly.

Turning away, she swaggered – no, sauntered – back into her room, her hips swaying with the practiced gait of a model or a whore. As she stepped into her caliginous chamber, crystalline light gems set into the walls shone sanguinely to life, pulsing as if with a heartbeat. The walls themselves were lined with uneven chunks of inky-black rock, with searing lava seeping through the cracks in between from somewhere in the ceiling, sizzling ceaselessly.

A plush bed, body-length mirror, various drawers and bookshelves and finally a crystal ball swirling mistily atop a table implied a level of luxury fitting either a highly favored harlot or the proprietor. The succubus paced around idly, her arms folded under her pale breasts in thought. Thumbing a few books from her shelves, then pacing back out to peer over her balcony, she finally drew a box from a drawer. Plopping into bed, she drew a handful of dildos and a tube of lube. Spreading her muscled thighs she exposed her pussy, a touch of soft pink among a sea of dark skin her hand reaching down to stroke it with her fingertips, a slow even stroke, her thumb toying with her clit. Squeezing lube onto her palm, she groped it evenly onto her breast. Her thumb and forefinger met under the veil of black in what had to be a squeeze of her nipple, and she gritted her teeth, her sharp features, those pronounced cheekbones now a painting of pleasure, and then she moaned, ever so softly.

"Uh!" Val's eyes leaped open, and she shook herself, standing.

"Well? What did you see?"

"Nothing!"

"Nothing? You took quite a while. I was pretty bored just standing around."

"Of course I did. " Val brushed some hair behind her ear, and continued, "It appears to be a tavern of sorts, only for weird creatures. Get this straight: I saw lizardmen, beholders, drow, goblin-kin and evil dwarves. There's the taproom where I saw ogres use a goblin as a dart target, a bloody gladiator arena where I saw a drow behead a troll, a casino, and a strip bar."

"Sounds wicked. So what do you think we should do? Try to kill them all? We probably could. If it's a confined space, lob in a few fireballs and ice storms or whatever and blow their brains out. Then we loot them." Kat had a sly gleam in her eye.

"I don't know. This place hints at a whole network of evil creatures that thrives in these parts. We could probably manage the hit, but I think we should try to infiltrate and see what more we can learn about the other hidey-holes. "

"Hmm. Yes, that's a better idea. I just wanted to wipe some scum from the face of the earth. Or should I say the gut of the earth? Still I can't really believe it. Are you sure? About the things you saw? This is a really big thing to discover just from a few hours of wandering. You'd think someone else would've found out. Besides where do you think those goblins came from? Surely not from deep under."

"I guess we're just really lucky. The whole of Sarbreen is huge, and we're probably like a few hundred feet underground. Not many people come this deep, unless they know for sure of a hidden cache. Which nobody knows these days? As for those gobs they should be from the Vast. Brought in by a mastermind with a use for some brute muscle." Val explained, referring to the wilder land beyond the city walls.

"So how're we going to 'infiltrate' the place?" Kat's fingers mimicked quotation marks.

"We'll stay invisible for awhile, since this doorway actually seems to be a hidden entrance. It ends up in a small hole we've to crawl through. Once we're properly inside I'll dispel the invisibility. We'll look just the same, only with a nice pair of horns to pass for tieflings. "Val eased into her practiced spellcasting and then each girl apparently had horns half a foot long.

Kat led the way again, and when the tunnel reduced both girls to crawling, the blonde was close enough to take in the sights for herself. A while later, Val smacked her on the bum.

"Remember, don't look too surprised or anything. Look indifferent. Remember that you dumb blondie."

"Whatever. We got to turn around to hang onto the edge first, then drop down. Don't trip over yourself getting down, oaf-girl. It's a pretty high drop."

As nimble as her namesake Kat slipped backwards, her long legs popping out first, then clinging onto the edge of the hole, finally dropping down on her toes with nary a sound. Val followed clumsily, landing with an unheeded thump, indistinct in the background clamor.

Wiping the invisibility as they squeezed through a gang of goblins, the duo made for the bar. Kat stared at the bargirl's jewelry in wide-eyed astonishment while the brunette cocked her chin to look down her nose at them.

"What's good these parts?" Val ventured.

"We have everything you could want, although my personal fave's the milk special. How about that? Two milk specials?" A list of drinks available hung above offered beverages like 'boiled bat's blood' and 'mixed brain juice'.

"Uh, sure." Kat plopped her quid onto the bar, and the bargirl swiped them up readily before turning around to grab two mugs from a high shelf, her firm back curving sleekly, the tip of her ass crack just showing through her tight pants as she tiptoed.

The duo watched as the bargirl leaned forward a little after thumping the mugs on the table, her back still facing them, her forearms reaching up. Eventually it dawned on them what exactly the bargirl was serving up. When she turned back around she held two mugs filled to the brim with creamy, slightly frothy milk. Val couldn't help sneaking a peek at her nipples to find pale white rivulets leaking from swollen red nubs. The bargirl leaned over propping her elbows on the bar table, eyeing both girls, licking her lips deliberately slowly, then flashing a sly grin.

"Enjoy. It's fresh."

* * *

I had been trailing through dark beyond dark for hours on end when I saw them, the illithid, or the mind flayers. My cloak of invisibility notwithstanding, I felt a tinge of fear, a sensation I'd almost forgotten. Psionic humanoids which an insect's eyes, black and deep, they had four octopus-like tentacles around a lamprey's mouth. Their heads looked like squid, and I'd heard the tales of them catching a man with their tentacles, sucking the very living brain out.

The repulsiveness of their physical forms was nothing compared to their psychic powers, or so I've heard. I'd rather die not knowing how it's like, taking a Mind Blast squarely, a shockwave that stuns the mind, and thus the body as well, that leaves their victims helplessly stunned beyond their own volition as the dreaded illithid feast on their brains. Mind Flayers indeed.